Washington played a penalty-filled mess of a game in Sunday’s 38-14 loss to Atlanta, and afterward coach Jay Gruden and his team weren’t happy with the officials.

Gruden called it “impossible” to win with the 10 penalties for 147 yards, and he suggested that the Falcons’ seven penalties for 50 yards were mostly makeup calls after the game was already out of reach.

“You might as well just give them the ball and give them the game,” Gruden said, via the Washington Post. “I have to check the tape to see what these penalties are all about. It’s very frustrating. We got a couple of token penalties [called on the Falcons] late. I have to look at the tape, and if they are legit, we have to get them corrected.”

Washington was flagged for holding seven times, although two of those penalties were declined. Washington also got two 15-yard personal fouls. Linebacker Zach Brown said the officials weren’t calling it both ways.

“Hey, man, you can’t beat the zebras and the team,” Brown said. “I feel if the refs aren’t going to be calling this, they should be fined just like we get fined. Certain plays were clear as day and they weren’t calling it, but at the end of the day we still got to find a way to get the ‘W.’”

Realistically, it’s hard to see how the officials could have made a 24-point difference, and that’s how much Washington lost by. So while there may have been some individual calls that were questionable, there’s little question that the Falcons were the better team on Sunday.

It wasn’t this game but I’m still struggling with how intentional grounding got called on a QB spike to stop the clock. The clock starts the moment the ball is snapped so it’s literally impossible for a QB to have possession of the football with a stopped clock.

So how is it possible for a QB to possess a football with a stopped clock? Which would make it impossible to spike the ball with a stopped clock. I guess we are just going to start making up the rules as we go.

laughing-look boys your o-line was marginal at best with the injuries and then you lost two more well moses came back but he was a shadow of his usual self.Take it for what it is a loss.It happens and only losers blame the refs in public.and yeah atlanta had a couple of payback penalties from the refs

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There seems to be a dichotomy developing among NFL officials. Some are calling every penalty imaginable. Others, like John Hussey, who gave us the Chiefs – Patriots thriller and Brad Allen, who was restrained during last night’s GB @ NE game, are letting them play.
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i didnt watch this game, so i wont use it as an example, however, the refs can totally be responsible for a 24 point loss. stopping a drive via penalties that could potentially end in a td, and giving the ball to the other team and they score, it is a potential 14 point swing. that can happen twice in the course of a game.
just like a timely turnover (last nights 4th qtr fumble), timely penalties can turn a game around

factschecker says:
November 5, 2018 at 8:54 am
It wasn’t this game but I’m still struggling with how intentional grounding got called on a QB spike to stop the clock. The clock starts the moment the ball is snapped so it’s literally impossible for a QB to have possession of the football with a stopped clock.

So how is it possible for a QB to possess a football with a stopped clock? Which would make it impossible to spike the ball with a stopped clock. I guess we are just going to start making up the rules as we go.
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The clock is stopped when the ball is snapped…it’s not that hard to understand. The spike was only put in the game to allow a team to stop a currently running clock, not start a stopped clock and then immediately stop it again just to waste a down and a second of time.

factschecker says:
“It wasn’t this game but I’m still struggling with how intentional grounding got called on a QB spike to stop the clock. The clock starts the moment the ball is snapped so it’s literally impossible for a QB to have possession of the football with a stopped clock.”

It’s weak to pretend you don’t unerstand that “stopped clock” refers to the state of the clock between downs just so you can argue semantics. Really weak.

And besides the QB can definitely have a live ball when the clock is not running in a few different situations. One is when there is an “untimed down” at the end of a half/game due to defensive penalty (as happened yesterday in the Chargers / Seahawks game) and another would be on two-point conversions.

factschecker says:
November 5, 2018 at 8:54 am
It wasn’t this game but I’m still struggling with how intentional grounding got called on a QB spike to stop the clock. The clock starts the moment the ball is snapped so it’s literally impossible for a QB to have possession of the football with a stopped clock.

So how is it possible for a QB to possess a football with a stopped clock? Which would make it impossible to spike the ball with a stopped clock. I guess we are just going to start making up the rules as we go.
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Agreed. I watched that game. Apparently the Zebras had money on the point spread. By their definition, every ball spike should be called as intentional grounding.

Not a redskin fan but i feel their pain. Its sad to see that the game has turned into such an over-controled clusterfudge of whatever outcome the guys in stripes dictate. Too many games have been decided by the refs and their bad calls. I get that players need rules to abide by, but when so many bad calls have decided the outcomes of the games, it just takes away from the product. Maybe its time to get mid-thirty year old ex player type of personel in for referees.

factschecker says:
November 5, 2018 at 8:54 am
It wasn’t this game but I’m still struggling with how intentional grounding got called on a QB spike to stop the clock. The clock starts the moment the ball is snapped so it’s literally impossible for a QB to have possession of the football with a stopped clock.
So how is it possible for a QB to possess a football with a stopped clock? Which would make it impossible to spike the ball with a stopped clock. I guess we are just going to start making up the rules as we go.
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Simple! You can’t spike the ball when the clock is stopped pre-snap. Not sure why the rule exists but then again, I can’t explain what a catch is.

Every team has to learn to accept bad calls by the refs but in your own house…Ouch! Unfortunately, the bad calls often DO determine the outcome of the game (and the betting line) and is just a reality that serves to devalue the game and take away some of the glory in the “wins”.
The NFL Competition Committee needs to do a better job of improving the quality of officiating and establish some sort of standards. Bad officiating of poorly written rules is ruining football for everybody!

We most likely would have lost anyways with the injuries and out of sync offense, but DANG, it was like they got a bonus every time they threw a flag.
The ball spin on Doctson was BS.
In regards to the Mahomes spike, I’m assuming that’s what you guys are referring to, the ref got out of the way after setting the ball down signaling you can start play. On top of that, prior to the ball being placed, there was 9 seconds on the clock. It ran down to 8 after the spike. The clock was not re-set prior to the 10 second run off. They screwed that one up!

I don’t recall the Redskins complaining about their guy jumping offside and then Dallas getting flagged for a BS penalty on that game tying FG. Now that they got embarrassed and manhandled it’s everyone’s fault but their own. They stink!

I’m not a fan of ref blaming but in this case, the officiating was really lopsided. At the start of the 4th quarter, Atlanta had something like 3 penalties for 20 yards. The pick plays were the worst part. Atlanta’s receivers weren’t even pretending to run routes. The skins didn’t have the horses to keep up yesterday but the refs made sure any small chance they had at winning was neutralized.

I think the Redskins have a beef. The officials called a very marginal holding penalty on Lauvao early in the game. The officials seemed to use that call as the standard for Redskin holding for the rest of the game. It really ruined the contest from a viewing standpoint for a fan of neither team.

greg3117 says: “In regards to the Mahomes spike, I’m assuming that’s what you guys are referring to, the ref got out of the way after setting the ball down signaling you can start play. On top of that, prior to the ball being placed, there was 9 seconds on the clock. It ran down to 8 after the spike. The clock was not re-set prior to the 10 second run off. They screwed that one up!”
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There was an off-side penalty that automatically stopped the game clock on the previous play. The NFL rule allowing QB spikes specifically says it can only be done to stop the game clock to save time – which wasn’t the case with Mahomes – hence, penalty.

Watch the tape. And yes, refs can impact a 30+ point losses. The worse call was the ATL touchdown right before half. The TE clearly took out the Redskins corner well before the pass and 10 yards down field. Score was 14-7 at that point. Game changer.

#2 – holding on Scherff on the AP screen – horrible call
#3 – Head shot to Smith on the scramble. Yes, he is a runner, but a helmet it is still a helmet hit. And we was out of bounds already.

Almost all of the ATL plays on 3rd down were pick plays. They called 2 late, but game was over. TE would come down and block BEFORE the pass on the LB to spring the RB.

Try having Pete Morelli & his minions make not 1, not 2 but 7 calls that the NFL admitted were all wrong that cost your team the SB. Then try to watch football again without being disgusted. Corruption litters the league. Like Donahue in the NBA.

here we go….excuses are for losers and the collapse has started. Spread the skins out and they wont win a game as their defense sucks in coverage. Cowboys have this division now and love hearing the skins who got blown out blaming the refs…..I saw 3-4 more blatant holds and agree the snap infraction on the cowboys was the biggest joke ever but never said a word about it. again, blaming refs is loser talk and skins are headed south now…..

As a long time Eagles fan I agree with Jay Gruden on 1 point. I have seen many many games over the years that clearly appeared that the referees would call late in the game meaningless penalties to balance out the very 1 sided game. They are covering their a…es.
However yesterday The Falcons were on fire offensively. They have a lot of offensive weapons and they all produced yesterday.

I think the reason Jay Gruden even brought it up is because of the unnecessary, after the whistle chop block on Brandon Scherff that ended his season. The refs didn’t call it, and when Jordan Reed brought it to their attention, they flagged him for fifteen yards. Usually coaches don’t complain about flags, but this was a case of the straw that broke the camel’s back. Literally.

Josh Norman tackled Julio to the ground before the ball got there and jumped up complaining about the flag. The skins must think the rules are different. It is BUSH to play like they did and then blame the refs for the loss.

Looked like Norman was complaining to me. The TV announcers even mentioned they didn’t know why he was complaining as it was clearly PI. So I think he was complaining. He didn’t press the argument but he clearly objected to the call.

Not saying that they would have won, but if the multiple pick plays had been called, as well as an attempt to even out the holding calls, this would have been a different game. We aren’t talking about normal “rub” plays, but blatantly illegal pick plays. No one can stop that offense if picks aren’t being called.